Phoenix vs St. Louis: Potential hosts for the 2028 US Olympic Marathon Trials

According to the bidding handbook:

"Marathon will be broadcast live on NBC or an NBC partner network. The broadcast window will be from 12 pm to 3 PM EST on either March 25 2028 or March 26, 2028."

Site visits to other bidding cities are going on this month. Bid is projected to be awarded in May, so there could be other options as well.

In 2017 Nike's last CEO announced at the shareholder's Nike is moving back to a centralized L.A. location from hundreds of rural small towns its Marketing, Branding, Film, TV, Photography, Design, Creative, Arts, Design stars a team of best, brightest, most innovative, filmmakers, performers, and thinkers.

The specular, mind blowing Nike Icon Studios opened in 2020 next to a fully opeational Light Rail Station. It cost $Billions to win a position at that location. Netflix, Amazon, Bollywood Film from India, Saudi Arabia, Apple Film Studios, MLS, etc. all bid for that lot.

I think Nike earned a chance to bid for the 2028 Marathon Trials at Hollywood, Santa Monica, Culver City, nearby Nike Ico Studios.

Trials should be in L.A. since the ohs are at USC in 2028

I don't think LA wants them. They're too busy preparing for the actual Olympics.

Our story which includes some quotes from the Phoenix organizers is here.

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2...

We also analyze the weather of the two places. More importantly, we have confirmation from USATF those are the only two cities that bid.

PS. Let's hope that WA and IOC make it so the Trials actually mean something. We are paying for the damn Olympics. Let us have 3 marathoners. At a minimum, the standard / World rank should go to the country, not the athlete so the Trials mean something.

Phoenix would be the faster course. Temperatures could get quite warm in the afternoon, I've been there in March where the afternoons were in the 80's. But the race should be in the morning, and it's not east coast so NBC won't be dumb and have it at 11am like they were wanting Orlando to be. Race will probably be 8am Phoenix time MST (They do not observe daylight savings time) which would be 11am EDT, 10am CDT, 9am MDT, 8am PDT. Sunrise is 6:23, solar noon is 12:33. So racing from 8am-10:30 the sun won't be that high most of the race.

In St. Louis in the middle of the country the weather is very volatile. It could be freezing or it could be 70's already. It could be calm or it could be super windy. St. Louis is also very hilly as you go away from the river front.

If the race is in Phoenix it could be an incredibly fast day, with the depth of US distance running we could see a winning time of 2:06 (or faster) and require at least a 2:07 to make the team.

It starts getting toasty that time of the year once the sun pops but it shouldn't be unbearable. My biggest concern would be what kind of course they could actually put together, especially if they plan to run it out of Hance park as mentioned. Guessing they'd try and run it up/down central to utilize light rail for spectators. Hopefully they clear the place out first so it doesn't end up like Phoenix 10k did.

9 AM start time in Phoenix, which is probably ok in march.

What was wrong with Phoenix 10k?

To prove your point, St. Louis had over 12 inches of snow on March 24th in 2013.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2013/03/24/snow-midwest-plains/2014557/

Phoenix is definitely the safer pick for March weather.

They are not bidding. Houston submitted a bid to return as the host for the trials in 2016, but Seigel overrode the committee recommendation to return to Houston and gave the trials to LA. The heat in LA in March was horrific and nearly ruined Shalane Flanagan's career. Since then, USATF and Houston have not wanted to have anything to do with each other. Bridges burned.

Keep in mind I'm not speaking of the current Phoenix 10k that now begins at the Biltmore but the previous iteration that ran through downtown Phoenix. It was no fault of the RD but that course became so overrun with homeless that it was borderline dangerous. Had one blasted out junkie lady walk right across the course just a hundred meters from the start that everyone in front, myself included, had to dodge. Then you had them lying across the course at the underpasses, some of the turn arounds, and at one point you literally had to jump over a pile of human poop that was on the course. It was way too close to The Zone and suffered majorly because of it. Now that it's been moved to Biltmore it's a much better venue not only for racing but for hanging out after as well.

I Love L.A.

Wow. Only two cities bid? Is it that much of a financial loss that municipalities don't want to host the trials? I'd like to know how much it cost to even submit a bid. Or what are the financial requirements to actually host the trials (e.g., flights/room/board for the 'A' qualifiers)?

ATL famously took a bath in 2020 and then went public with their receipts. And what happened with Chattanooga in 2024?

Take a look at this article I wrote in 2022. Outlines a lot of the costs, requirements, and problems with hosting the Olympic Marathon Trials.

The Trials is a financial loser for the organization that hosts it. The Houston Marathon lost money on the 2012 Trials and the Atlanta Track Club lost money on the 2020 Trials.

The difference in 2028 is that, rather than existing races, it is two local tourism/sports commissions that are bidding: Visit Phoenix/Phoenix Sports and Events Commission and the St. Louis Sports Commission. The whole point of those organizations is to raise money to bring events to their city. They generally accept that they're going to lose money on events but trust that it will come back to the city via hotel stays, meals, etc. from those coming into town. Ben Rosario had some good quotes about this in my article:

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2022/04/are-the-us-olympic-marathon-trials-broken-examining-the-business-model-of-americas-greatest-marathon/

Ja. When Los Angeles does not even apply to hold it, the chances of their non-application being accepted is very low indeed.

Weather - Phoenix (Missouri in March could have snow, thunderstorms, etc)

Out of town visitors - Phoenix (see above)

Local Running Scene - St. Louis (Phoenix is just not a huge running town, most of their big races get people visiting)

TV - St. Louis (they want the later start time and probably can get away with that in Missouri)